June 2006

What better way to see in Canada Day weekend than sampling Belgian and northern French fruit beers. There is no rhyme or reason to the selection other than they are from within a couple of hundred kilometres of each other. Should this breaks rules it is because no one sent me the pamphlet with the …

Well, Long Island's beer reporter has been tasting plenty of beer, but my focus over the last week has been Trappist or Abbey-style ales and outside of Southampton Publick House there are few examples brewed on the Island. DJ Swanson of John Havard's Brew House in Lake Grove has a Triple in the …

And it appears the beer drinkers of the area were ready, according to yesterday's press release: • “Go ahead and call them sell-outs. They don't mind at all. • The team at Eastern Ontario's newest brewery, Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co., couldn't be happier that all 30 hectolitres (3,000 L, or …

The ever excellent lads at Bar Towel, Toronto's (and, as they expand, hopefully soon all of Ontario's) best resource for beer news and chat boards, have launched the voting for the best of the best in Ontario: the Golden Tap Awards. This is a great way to note the province's beery excellence that …

Holy product placement, Batman. • I picked this up at Finger Lake Beverages the other weekend and didn't twig to this being a special release by Victory as it was not in the 22 oz bottle that usually screams special release. Here is the Victory press release which provides the facts on the style …

A heavy weight has entered the arena of ideas with the launch of Brew Blog by the Miller Brewing Company. • At first view, it looks fairly even handed. Front page items at the moment include stories about sometimes fierce competator Anheuser-Busch as well as general drinks industry …

As you know, I am not a lager lover. But since asking the question of myself about pilsner, like Donavan, I have been wondering more about this half of the beer world and particularly this style so I picked up two more to consider as well as another lager I should trust as a comparator … read more »

This is just getting silly. Who needs ice crystals in their beer? • “North American brewer Molson Coors has launched the coldest draught beer in the world which is designed to be served at minus 2.5 degrees with a layer of slushy ice crystals underneath the foamy head. Coors Sub Zero was …

For those of you North Americans not in the eastern third of North America, it may be hard to believe that this is the first time I have found brews from the Goose Island Beer Co. in my north-eastern travels. But such is the power of inter-state, international and inter-provincial beer regulation …

As reported last Feburary, US mega brewer Anheuser-Busch has obtained the exclusive rights to sell the beer at the World Cup in Germany. Reports from across the sea have it that the move to only sell a thin bubbly rice based fluid has not been particularly well received. Unlike German keeper … read more »

Who can resist a micro in a can? And especially a hefeweizen. Not me - at least not since I first met Old Chub. The brewery only has a one page web site. They seem to be new as Lew says only this in an update from three months ago: • “3/7/06: Just saw this on BeerAdvocate. Guess I need to check …

I don't mean to push Donavan's excellent post down too soon but - what is a fellow to do when you hear news like this? • “Baptists bash beer and blogs • During their national convention, Southern Baptists took the time to address two huge pressing theological issues - beer and blogs. The …

A new batch of Double White from Southampton Publick House is coming out now in the Atlantic states. This is one of the standard beers in the "XXII Reserve" series---beers that are bottled in 22 ounce bottles. The press release I received prompted me to inspect my cellar and sure enough I did have …

While we here at A Good Beer Blog are as ecumenical as the next beer blog, we also know that up is up and down is down and that there is no fear of somethings happening so why bother bringing it up: • “Saudi soccer players will not accept World Cup man-of-the-match awards for religious reasons …

There are not too many beer brandings I like as much as this. But I am a big fan of this place, the Antique Boat Museum at Clayton, NY, and also like the Kodachrome kitch as much as the next resident of the St. Lawrence valley. Mind you if the beer was hopeless I'd lack that warm fuzzy feeling I …

Directions to Half Time Beverages • Behind the scenes here at A Good Beer Blog things can get a little more hectic than you might imagine. Even though this is an amateur piece of work, folks write from here and there asking for advice, say, about where to get a particular beer or seeking a …

Some time ago we reviewed the complex scheme of regional beer glass sizes used in Australia. It's bad enough trying to keep on top of what a "pot" or a "schooner" means from this state to the next but it is worse when bars take the extra step of cheating the system as The Sunday Mail discovered … read more »

Found at Tully's for $4.99 USD for 500 ml, this 6% ale is from the makers of Pitchfork Bitter, who are also part of the shadowy but excellent Wessex Craft Brewers, a co-operative that also includes the brewers of Freeminer Deep Shaft Stout. It also won a gold medal from the good people at CAMRA in …

Chapter One, Saturday: upon which they first meet the IPA... • Last night, after a week visiting teetotalers, I got home and it was hot. In between rainstorms I had to cut the lawn and rake it too. Happily, there was one last Guinness in the fridge, and I sucked it down like one who has just …

I know so little about kölsch because it is so hard to find on the shelf. I know it is an ale from Köln and that municipal regulation over time has done its job in protecting the style. Clearly not much of an edjification. I found this one at Tully's in Maine in April for $2.49 each and actually …

I get emails all the time for this cause or that but this one seems more interesting than the Nigerian scams or amazing offers from others to repost this blog's content to make them big bucks at their sites: • “This is probably WAY off topic for the normal articles that are covered on 'A Good …

Ah, another white beer to try. We've discussed wits, wittes or whites here, here, here, and here. • This one pours a cloudy, particulate-floaty lemon yellow ale under white rim and foam. It is both creamy and dry due to the combination of unmalted wheat and a fairly generous level of hopping …

There are beers I know I should like. People work very hard to make them and they are made with skill. They are popular and have names a lot of people recognize. Pilsner is one of those beers. And I don't like them generally. • Last November I found one I did like - Steam Whistle from Toronto …

Last time I said I would let you know how the 10th Annual B.E.E.R. Brew-off went. I ended up judging two flights: Stouts and German Wheat and Rye. I hadn't judged in a few years, primarily because my connection with the beer scene was severed when I relocated from Florida to Long Island …

No, I'm not there. I don't think Blork is even there, our man in Montreal as he is just back from an Italian excursion. But the 13th Montreal Beer Festival or Mondial de la bière is on now though the 4th of June. • Here is a list of the brews which are available and it is pretty impressive … read more »

Please visit our kind sponsors, Ontario Craft Brewers. They are the makers of many of the fine ales and brews you read about around here.

Alan is apparently a Gen X-er who has hit 40... err...44... err... 45... YIKES... 46 ... [ZOW-WEE!!] 48... jessh, now 51... and edits and writes about other stuff at his personal website Gen X at 40. Please email Alan or any of the authors at this blog's gmail account - please write if you want to join the ranks of authors of this site or just want to send in a story on your favorite beer or photo of your regular pub.

I have moved the content of the OCB Commentary Wiki here. It is now a static document and pretty much is locked in as understandings existed as of 2012. Probably needs its own wiki to update the content! Below are the original introductory remarks:

"The purpose of this wiki is to collectively make comments, add annotation, identify errata and suggest further sources to the text of The Oxford Companion to Beer. Members are asked to avoid comment about the authors, the structure of the text or other extraneous matters. This wiki is a not for profit project that reviews the text pursuant to the concept of "fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review" under Canadian copyright law." Alan McLeod, wiki Organizer, and chief bottle washer at A Good Beer Blog. Motto? "Many hands make pleasant work." Alan McLeod, 25 October 2011. Please provide some information about yourself when making a request to join the wiki. Anonymous requests for membership will not be approved. Overly ardent and rudely put claims to authority will be cause for removal from the membership. As of 11 January 2012, 134 entries or 12.2% of the total of 1,100 received commentary, many with multiple comments. Eight of the photos have been corrected as well. That number rose to 151 by 13 May 2012.